274 MR. SPRUCE’S BOTANICAL EXCURSION 
that in the morning my blanket was soaked, and one of my arms 
quite stiff and benumbed. A feeling of general malaise throughout 
the day was followed by an attack of fever, from which I did not fairly 
recover until we entered once more the broad Amazon. During the 
whole of our stay in the Paraná-mirí we had constantly heavy dews, 
while on the Amazon the dews are none or scarcely perceptible. This 
difference is doubtless owing to the strong winds which almost daily 
sweep up the Amazon, the winds in these narrow channels being either 
light or in no certain direction; to which may be added, that in the 
dry season the channels are hemmed in by steep banks of twenty or 
thirty feet high, surmounted by dense and lofty forest. 
The region included by the Paraná-mirí dos Ramos and the Amazon 
is literally sown with lakes, the outlets of which are narrow brooks, 
communicating, some with the former and some with the latter, but 
nearly all dried up in summer. On the south side of the Ramos there are 
also several lakes. All these are richly stored with pirarucá, and usually 
take their names from some animal or plant abundant in their waters 
or on their shores; as the Lago das Garças, Lago dos Jacarés, Lago 
do Arrozal (the Heron's lake, the Alligator's lake, the Rice lake), &c. 
In the height of the dry season, when the water of the lakes is low, 
numbers of fishermen resort to them for the purpose of taking pira- 
rucá; including not only all the available population of the Ramos, 
but also fishing-parties from places as far distant as Pará and Macapt. 
When I had somewhat recovered from my sickness I managed, but 
with difficulty, to reach one of the lakes; to do which I had to thread 
an Indian track of an hour's length, through a dense forest, consisting 
chiefly of wild cacao-trees, castanheiras, and Urueurí palms. I found 
the lake nearly circular, of about a mile in diameter, and several fishing 
parties were at work on it. The general sleeping-apartment was à 
large palm-leaf house erected on poles in the lake, at a sufficient dis- 
tance from shore to secure it from the visits of carapanás. This con- 
.. trivance is resorted to on all the lakes, which are abominable places for 
praga of every description, 
I was disappointed not to observe a single plant, save the rank 
grasses round the margin; but jacarós were laid in the water in almost 
. countless numbers, resembling so many huge black stones or logs. 
.. What we had seen in the Amazon of these reptiles was nothing com- 
~ pared to their abundance in the Ramos and its adjacent lakes, I can 
